


Fortune Favors Part 1

by Lizardbeth



Series: Fortune [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Age of Sail, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Pirate, BAMF Sif (Marvel), F/M, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Torture, Revenge, Sif focus, Temporary Character Death, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:07:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28235910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizardbeth/pseuds/Lizardbeth
Summary: Sif thought the day of her engagement party was the happiest day of her life. If only it had not been followed soon after by news her beloved, Prince Loki, had been killed in a pirate attack on his ship. She vows they will pay for what they've done.But not everything is what it seems, on land or at sea, where magic still lingers.
Relationships: Loki/Sif (Marvel)
Series: Fortune [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2085525
Comments: 25
Kudos: 49
Collections: Mischief and Mistletoe 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [murdur](https://archiveofourown.org/users/murdur/gifts).



> Merry Mischiefmas and happy New year! 
> 
> Note 1: This story turns the MCU into an Age-of-Sail-with-magic AU. But it's also a bit of a mashup to simplify things so don't expect it all to track exactly the same.
> 
> Note 2: This is also only the first part of the entire story. I got very carried away! 
> 
> It's Sif's tale, and I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

The gardens behind Gladsheim Palace were quiet in the mid-afternoon. Most of last night's engagement festivities had been cleared away, light luncheon had already been served, and Sif was pleased to have this afternoon with her beloved before his departure in the morning.

"I wish you didn't have to go," she murmured. Her hand rested lightly on his arm as they walked in the shade of the grape arbor that lined the western edge of the Queen's Garden.

"I wish you could come with me," Loki countered. He wanted to go. He'd always been the type to want to see or do something new. As the younger prince, military duty would be his main occupation, but he'd been the one to choose the military academy in Rome. He'd argued it would allow him to make friends among many of the nobility and future generals and admirals of allies and enemies alike, but mostly, she just thought it was his interest in living somewhere else.

"It does sound interesting," she agreed. But the collegium in Rome was less enlightened and did not accept young ladies, so there was no chance of that. "I have my own studies here to occupy me, I suppose. Even if you will be ever so far away." She sighed and paused to face him, sorrowful that he'd be leaving tomorrow.

"I will write you," he promised, lifting her hand to his lips, which was likely the most daring he would be in the middle of the garden with workers all about and her own chaperone dutifully ten paces behind.

"And I will write you back." She turned her hand to smooth his cheek.

Those light eyes met hers forthrightly, and she smiled because instead of his usual habit of gluing his hair into a straight queue, he'd only tied it back leaving curls escaping around his face and against his collar.

"Four years." She grimaced, looking at the ring on her finger. A prince's promise was a heavy thing, and yet still one that might be revoked. Might he find someone else? They were both still young - all the matrons told her so, sighing at their young love - and he was at the mercy of his father the king and perhaps some favorable alliance in the future to title or wealth that Sif, though both titled and wealthy in her own right, did not have. He could marry a princess and be a king in some other land. What did she have to offer?

Some of the doubt must've been easy to read on her face, as he whispered, "There has never been anyone but you. Not since that day you were presented and I saw this little girl in her perfect gown and perfect hair, and a leaf stuck to her shoe."

She laughed softly with delight and ducked her head, smiling. It was true - she remembered it, too. She had risen from her very coached proper curtsey to the two young princes of the realm and seen the leaf. Her mortification had been complete when she saw the younger prince looking right at it. But instead of becoming angry that she'd tracked in a moldy leaf onto his beautiful carpet, he'd smiled at her with a delightful mischievous look in his eyes. It had not been a surprise that he'd escaped his minders later to bring her a sweetcake and sit with her at the courtyard fountain, heedless of protocol and his finery.

Luckily the king had only laughed and permitted Sif to spend time with both his sons, much to the delight of her family. He had asked for her hand before obtaining permission, but he had persisted until it was finalized. Last night's ball to finally announce and celebrate it had been grand, and if Sif hadn't been fond of the weight of her ball gown, she had been delighted to have Loki as her only partner for the dances. Sitting at his side, feeding each other treats, while watching the amazing fireworks show had been even better.

"We're so fortunate," she murmured. "So easily we could have had a different fate or other partners chosen for us."

"We are fortunate your brother is in good favor with the king, and willing to forgo Crown debt for your dowry," Loki added dryly, and she smacked him on the arm. He wasn't wrong of course; the king wouldn't allow this if she brought nothing to the marriage. She just hoped it was enough.

He very daringly let his finger slip down her neck to the top of her gown. "I long for that day," he murmured. "When it is just you and I, in our own chamber, and the rest of the world will not have to exist."

She shivered at the touch and agreed, "I do, too. It cannot come soon enough." It was tempting to do more, right there, in fact, until Lady Darcy cleared her throat and Sif grimaced and stepped back. She tried to smile wryly, but feared the result looked rather sad and sickly. "But not yet."

He dropped his hand and allowed himself a sigh. "Not yet. But the time will pass quickly, and I will come home when I have leave, so just ..." he paused and swallowed, "wait for me, and I will come home to you, Sif. I swear."

She nodded, blinking back the sudden heat in her eyes, and impetuously seized his hand in both of hers. "As long as it takes, beloved. I promise, and I will be yours, and you will be mine, and no one in the world can part us."

He leaned nearer and nearer, and her heart both seemed to stop and leap up into her throat, as she wondered if he was to kiss her. Then in a quick dart forward of his head, his lips touched hers before he hastily stepped back. The mischievous look was back on his face. "There, now I have sealed it with a kiss."

It had been both engulfing and not enough. She wanted it again, longer, more of it. Four years seemed like an eternity. "And when you return, you will do that again and not stop."

"Ever?" he retorted, mirth sparkling in his eyes.

"Never." They were still holding hands, her golden ring glinting in the sun, and this was what she wanted to have the rest of her life.

* * *

The prince departed the next day with his entourage to escort him to his ship. She stood on the step and waved a decorous goodbye, feeling bereft the moment the carriage door shut, even before it had moved.

Thor moved closer. "It will be well, almost sister," he murmured in comfort. "He goes off to the Roman Academy, not the ends of the Earth. I believe he intends to return at Festivus."

"I know. But that seems so long," she confessed.

"I will miss him, too," he agreed. "But that means you and I will have to act in his stead to work mischief on the dour courtiers." When that failed to lighten her mood, he added more gently, "The time will pass more swiftly, if we are busy."

So she became busy, learning more details of royal household management to prepare for her role as Loki's princess. She received two letters from him from the port while he waited for a favorable weather, and those were her favorites-- declarations of love that he could scarcely whisper to her in person, but he could pour out his heart in pages and pages of letter.

But then, nothing. There were no letters. His escort returned with confirmation he had boarded his ship, _Jormungandr_ and it had departed. But no word followed for days and weeks.

Sif grew worried, knowing he would write her, and his mother equally fretted in her own more graceful way. The king sent a summons to the admiralty to discover why there was no word that the ship had arrived at any port.

The news came by messenger, a young lieutenant of the Navy. He bowed formally and handed the thick report to Lord Tyr for the King.

Sif's eyes fixed on that sealed sheaf of papers, and her blood felt thick and heavy with dread. It could not be good news.

No, it had to be good news. It had to be ordinary. Loki had arrived safely in Rome, and he simply was too busy with his studies to send word. His messages had gone astray, or had been stolen. There was a good explanation for his silence.

Tyr broke the seal and scanned the top page, his usually jovial expression faltering before he swallowed hard and looked to the king.

"Tell us, Tyr," King Odin requested his voice softer than Sif had ever heard it.

Tyr's eyes flicked to both the queen and then to Sif, before addressing a mid-point between them. "This says, Your Majesty, that the royal vessel _Jormungandr_ , on which his highness was a passenger, was attacked by another vessel in the straits. They were set upon under a false flag and hit broadside."

Sif heard her own gasp of dismay echoed by the queen. The king allowed himself no such reaction, but she saw his hands tighten on the arms of his throne. "Go on," he ordered Tyr, when Tyr stopped.

"After a brief battle, the _Jormungandr_ was captured. According to those who survived, the pirate captain separated the crew by chance, not by rank, and put half to the sword. The other half were put into the life boats and set adrift, while the _Jormungandr_ was taken away." He swallowed again and looked down at the paper in his hands. "The prince was not on the lifeboats, my liege."

The room was suddenly very close and hot, and she couldn't breathe. This could not be. She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't. It was impossible. Not Loki, not now, she could not have lost him mere days after bidding her goodbye.

The young lieutenant stepped forward with a short bow to add, "But nor did any of them report seeing anything happen to him," he said with difficulty. "Admiral Freyr's conclusion is that His Highness was hit in the original attack in his cabin, as no one saw him after, and it is known his page fell in the initial broadside." He bowed his head again and stepped back, hands clasped behind his back.

She could imagine it all too easily in that moment, the cannons of the enemy ship taking the royal ship by surprise and slamming into the sides. If but one of those had hit the royal cabin aft then....

Her hand went to her throat, as if she could claw it open to let out the heart that suddenly felt too big and her chest too small to contain the anguish welling up inside.

The king was silent for a moment, knuckles visibly white as he fought for control. Queen Frigga let out a soft cry, and Thor stirred from his own shocked silence to go to her. He wrapped her in a hug; she hid her tearing eyes in the folds of his cape at his shoulder, while he stared blankly and clutched her close.

That left Sif with nothing to hold, no one to go to. The one who should have comforted her was the one who was gone.

She could not bear the room one second more, and whirled, skirts billowing, to run out. She didn't stop, slamming the door open and racing down the long carpeted corridor. She saw none of it, not one thing; it was all a blur as she hurled herself down the grand staircase and found her way outside.

The sun was mercilessly bright, mocking her pain with its warmth, as she fetched up against the central fountain, breathing in frantic gulps.

Gripping the edge of the concrete that made up the seat that ringed the fountain and its central feature of frolicking dolphins, she wished she could rip it out of the ground. Tear it all down. Throw the pieces while she screamed at God for doing this.

The gold on her finger caught the light and she stared, stricken into stillness by the sight. His token of his promise that he would come back, that he would marry her, that they would be together always...

He was lost. Gone. Torn from her just before all their dreams could come true.

"No," she whispered hoarsely, her voice sounding broken to her own ears. "No, please... please...."

She sank down in the damp gravel of the path, hands still clutching the edge of fountain. "Please don't leave me." But he had already left. Months ago it had happened. It had just taken this long for her to find out, but it had happened mere days after he had kissed her, right here.

How had she not known? Shouldn't she have known? The stories said the lovers knew such things, that they could sense trouble and loss from leagues away. But she'd sensed nothing. He'd slipped away from her and she hadn't even known.

Huddling against the solidity of the fountain, she didn't stop the tears from falling onto her hands, feeling every bit alone.

* * *

A week later, Sif presented herself before the king for audience. He looked tired, she noticed, worn down by sudden loss. And fury, too, she'd heard about a flurry of orders to the Admiralty to identify and destroy the pirate who had killed his son.

But still he raised his head from his writing desk and beckoned her forward. "Lady Sif? Please."

She curtsied and then drew herself up. "Your Majesty, I - I have had thoughts in the past week that I would like your... blessing to undertake."

His face softened and she knew he was expecting her to ask leave to return to her own estates, now that her engagement was ended. She twisted the ring on her finger and met his eye. "I would like, your Grace, to have your recommendation to enter the Royal Naval Academy."

He froze and then carefully laid his quill back into the inkwell, before regarding her in a long moment. She didn't dare move beneath his regard. How could only one eye, the other covered by a golden patch, feel so intense?

"Why would you wish that, Lady Sif?" he asked, though he had to guess her reasons. "There are some ladies at the academy, but you would be rare and not comfortable."

"I do not seek comfort, Your Grace. In fact," she lifted her chin, "I seek to make others as discomforted as I am. If my lord is ... lost to us," she stumbled over her words, caught again by the pain of admitting it aloud, "then I would take up his place and fight those who took him from me. From us."

"There are others charged with that, my lady," he said.

"They have not the same interest, Your Grace." Her words were polite and measured, but within she was filled to bursting. If she did not expend it doing this, she had no idea what else to do. The villain who had taken her beloved away needed to pay, her betrothed needed to be avenged, and she did not care overmuch if she did not survive the experience. She would take her own ship and she would stop all the pirates who came across her path, and she would especially destroy the one who had taken Loki from her.

And whether it was her calm spoken aloud, or that he could sense an echo of his own rage within her, but he nodded once in understanding. "As I do as well, my lady. Very well. Your request is granted. If it is truly what you wish, I shall give you a letter of admission to the Naval Academy."

"It is, my liege. I thank you." She curtsied again deeply, bowing her head.

"Stand, Lady Sif. You are a cadet, now. A naval officer salutes."

She rose back to her feet, stood straight, and imitated the salutes she had seen, elbow bent, stiff hand to an invisible hat brim.

It would be a different life, a more difficult life, but looking at her ring, she knew it was the only life she wanted now.

* * *

Prince Loki startled awake. He was cold, and he was lying on something very hard, chill, and unpleasantly damp. Everything was dark, and he had no clothes on. Nothing. Uneasiness trailed up his spine. All he remembered was the thunderous roar of cannon, and nothing after that. Something terrible had happened after the attack on his ship. Was he a prisoner? He had to be, if someone had stolen his clothes.

He turned over and sat up to look at his surroundings. At first there was nothing to see, only darkness. For a moment he feared he was blind until he realized there was a light above him. It was enough that his sight soon adjusted to see he was in a small bare cell of plain stone floor and walls, and only one apparent exit in the grate at the top.

The shiver that wracked him then was from more than just cold. He was definitely a prisoner.

Presumably he was being held for ransom against his father. That had always been a possibility, of course, but he had never expected someone to attack his ship. Unless he'd simply been on the wrong ship at the wrong time and the attackers had gotten lucky.

"Hello?" he called. "Is anyone there?"

The answer came back in a deep voice that echoed on the narrow walls of his cell. "Ah, you awaken. Good."

"Where are my clothes?"

"You no longer need them," the voice replied. "Everything you have will come from me, from now on."

Loki frowned. "What are you talking about? Do you know who I am? If it's money you want--"

The voice interrupted, "I care nothing for such things. You belong to me now. And when you are finally worthy, you shall join my children, and we will turn day to night, and rule the seas as my birthright."

He was mad, Loki realized. This was worse than he had thought. "I am Loki Odinson, prince of --"

"You have no name. Once you are worthy of the gift, you will be one of my captains with a name I give you. But not yet. First you must prove yourself to me."

"Prove myself how?" Loki asked warily, knowing it was mistake to ask. He probably didn't want to know. But perhaps he could figure a way out of it. Sif and his family had always said he could talk himself out of anything.

The answer was chilling. "By surviving. You will spend the next five days in the darkness. Become the dark, boy, or die. This is your first test."

"No, wait!" Loki called urgently, but he heard movement above and the light dimmed and went out. The slamming of a door said he was alone.

He conjured the memory of Sif's beautiful face, her smile, her surprised delight when he had kissed her. He'd promised to get home to her. Somehow he had to keep that promise.

_I will see you again, I will come home to you._

And though the time passed, and the long dark nibbled at his mind, shredding it in terror and suffering, his heart held on to that promise, deep inside, that one day this would end and he would see her again.


	2. Chapter 2

Newly minted Captain Sif of the _Valkyrie_ , gripped the hilt of her sword, as she glowered at the enemy ship. 

They had thought they were clever, false flagging to Alfheim, but she had seen the ship from afar and she knew in her bones that frigate was the _Excelsior_. It had been captured two years ago, and had been seen in the Caribbean last year. The rigging was not terribly distinctive, but she remembered her studies of the various ships of the line and she knew. So she had ordered her crew to prepare a broadside of their own, and crossed upwind to put the enemy at a disadvantage. 

Had they been truly of Alfheim, they would have signaled they meant no aggression or turned away, but in her spyglass, she could see the scramble as they tried to cross again to bring themselves closer to attack position. At which point she knew they were the enemy. 

"Ready!" Sif commanded. She would take it, and she _would_ bring this ship back into proper hands.

She turned the ring still on her finger. She no longer thought of Loki every day, but on days like today when she was closer to his killers, she did. 

She had graduated the Academy, assigned a ship as midshipman, and then after a successful engagement against the enemy, been promoted to XO and now a ship of her own. She knew some of the advancement was royal favor, but that just made her more determined to prove herself.

"Fire!" 

In her first battle as captain, she had them flat-footed and her guns were bigger. They waved the white after the first broadside, and she glowered, suspicious of dishonor. It too could be a trick. Thieves and pirates had no honor, so why should these? 

And in fact, they had none, attacking her men as they crossed over. But she had stout men with both pistol and sword, and they made short work of the enemy. 

Lieutenant Hogun waved his sword in token that the ship was taken. And the huzzah went up from her ship. She allowed herself to smile before straightening and commanding that she go across.

Those alive were kneeling on the deck before her men. Their captain knelt too - he was all in black with a helmet that Hogun had taken from him. The face beneath it was unremarkable for a pirate captain.

"What is your name?" she demanded.

He stared at her in hostile silence and at firs didn't answer. Hogun used the pommel of his sword on the back of his head. "Answer the captain, you garbage." 

"I am Obsidian."

"Not the name you were born with," she observed.

"It is the only name I have. My lord gave it to me to do his work." He grinned then. It was a mad, chilling rictus. "And you will never stop him." 

"I stopped you." 

"I am but one. The Black Order are legion."

There was that name again. The survivors had noted it in the attacks, that they had been committed by something that called itself the Black Order, which appeared to be the name of their pirate flotilla. But no one had ever heard of them before. They flew no flag of their own, not even the common skull-and-crossbones flag. Who were they? Where did they come from?

Obsidian sneered at her, "We cannot be defeated."

"You will be. Where is your master? Where does he abide?" she demanded. He refused to answer, and she seized his chin, forcing him to look up at her. "Where is he?"

He smirked at her. "Where you will never find him.''

"The murderer of Prince Loki will be rooted from the earth like the rat he is," she promised. "Royal vengeance will rain upon you, and you will tell us all your secrets." 

He smiled at her, unimpressed. "I will tell you nothing. There is nothing you can do which I have not already known. No darkness I have not conquered. I fear no pain and I fear no death. For I have already become the dark." 

She rolled her eyes at the lofty pronouncement. "You sound like a monk of a particularly annoying sect." 

"Our lives belong to our master. So does our death." Right after he said the words, he and the other prisoners began to gag and cough on nothing. Shortly they bent over, in evident pain, and fell into convulsions. Helplessly, she watched as one by one, they succumbed, until every last one lay unmoving, bluish spittle hanging from their lips. 

Hogun knelt beside "Obsidian" and felt for his pulse, looking up at her and he shook his head in grim negative. "Dead, Captain." 

She surveyed the ten bodies, horror creeping her spine at the sight. They had all killed themselves. "Poison?"

He gave a tight shrug. "I would think so. Little else would do that."

Infuriated she kicked the corpse in the ribs once. He should have come back with her to face the King's justice. He should have revealed all his order's secrets. Now he was dead and she had nothing. "Damn you," she hissed at him, "I hope you burn in hell." 

Twisting her ring, she thought for a moment. "I will see to the captain's cabin. Strip the bodies and dump them overboard. Then Lieutenant Hogun, you will take the _Exelsior_ home." 

He nodded straightening and gave a nod of acknowledgement. "Aye, Captain." 

She searched the cabin. As it was a naval vessel, its secrets were less secret to her, and she found the hidden compartments of the captain's cabin easily. There were two locked chests in them, which she took back to her own ship to open at her leisure on the sail home. The logbook appeared to be in cipher, and there was nothing in the charts to point to their base that she could see. She would turn it all over to the admiralty. Perhaps others with longer experience could find what she could not.

In her cabin, she used a dagger and a chisel to break into the two chests. The larger one held gold and jewels, which she put in the strongbox for tallying the prize money. But the smaller chest was odd. There was only a blue stone inside, nestled in velvet. The stone was the size of a chicken egg, but cut into a cube. It made her strangely uneasy to look at, as if it looked back at her. Not wanting to touch it, she lifted it out with a handkerchief covering her hand, put the stone in the indented part of the table so it wouldn't slide off if the ship hit a swell, and slit the velvet to look beneath. Perhaps the odd blue stone was a distraction for something more valuable beneath. 

But there was nothing, only the wood of the box. Putting the stone back inside, she tapped her blade against the rim, thinking. 

It was the stone that was valuable. It did not appear to be a true jewel, since it did not glimmer like aquamarine or blue topaz, and was too light in color to be sapphire, but perhaps it was some sort of crystal or mineral, so why was it in this box alone in treasured status? 

And why did the mere sight of it make her stomach queasy and the hair on her arms stand up as if lightning might strike? 

She closed the lid again, to put it out of sight, noticing the lid was abnormally heavy for a box made of wood. Closer inspection proved the chest wasn't silver-plated, it was covered in lead. 

She put the chest inside her own and locked it, but waited to go out to the men, wondering. 

Lead. Why lead? Something so common. To make the box heavy? That was odd. Had "Obsidian" hoped this treasure would be lost at the bottom of the sea, instead of being taken? Could it be the stone was more than it seemed? 

But what? What did it mean? 

* * *

The ship docked in port, right behind the recovered _Excelsior_ and she went off to report to the Admiralty, where orders caught up to her to report to the palace to see Thor. 

They'd grown closer in the last few years, as he undertook his own military training and she fought her little battles at the naval academy. Always the memory of his brother held them together, as if it was only together that they felt free to mourn him as they wished. 

So it was no great surprise that Thor wanted to see her. He'd surely heard about the _Excelsior_ by now, and she wanted to tell him about the strange casket with the blue stone in it. 

She headed to the palace the next day, worked her way up the staff and was relieved when Thor was receiving. They ended up in the gardens where it was lovely and they could be less formal. Wandering, she brought them to a more isolated corner where there were fruit trees and low rose bushes, and a gazebo for shade. She liked it because she could see if anyone was approaching too close.

She told him about the battle, amused by his enthusiasm for it, and described the aftermath. His expression fell and his lips parted in shock. "They all killed themselves?"

She nodded. "With poison. I passed the maps and other documents I found to the Admiralty for study but personally I saw no clues in there to their hideout. I did however find an interesting treasure I wanted you to see. I don't know what to make of it." 

She pulled the small casket from the satchel she was carrying and set it down on the bench, hidden from prying eyes by the gazebo's low wall. 

"Silver?" he asked, and she shook her head. 

"Lead. And protecting this." She lifted the lid to show him the stone. Maybe it was the slanted sunlight of late afternoon reflecting oddly, but the stone seemed to have a glow of its own, nestled in the yellow velvet.

"What is it?" he asked reaching into pluck it out before she could warn him against touching it. The instant his fingers closed on it, he let out a startled yelp and leapt back a pace. His eyes were wild, seeking her out. "It felt hot! How can that be?"

She dampened her lips. "I think... I believe it might be magic." 

Reflexively he scoffed. "Magic? Magic is a thing of charlatans and quacks," Thor dismissed. "We are rational people, not superstitious barbarians, Sif."

She nodded. "I know, I know, and I believe that, too. But," her eyes dropped to the stone in the box. "There's something unnatural about it. It burns if you touch it, and it feels as if it's watching me. It's not _right_ ," she added in frustration at her inability to explain. She wished Loki was there to talk to about it; he would have loved investigating it. "Perhaps it's some strange new science, I don't know, but the whole ship was odd. All those men, they took poison to avoid capture. Who would do that willingly? We don't execute the entire crews of pirate ships. So why? Something else is happening with all this."

Thor gingerly reached out and closed the lid. She felt the lack of the stone's presence immediately, as if the air felt warmer and that odd feeling of being watched was gone. The prince let out a breath. "Well, I don't know whether your superstition has infected me or not, but I do feel easier now, with it shut." 

"If it's not magic, what is it _for_?" she persisted. "It isn't valuable in itself. It is not a precious jewel, only a base crystal. Perhaps its size and square cut make it unusual, but it is not valuable enough to have its own case like this." 

Thor grimaced, thinking. "Perhaps it held sentimental value to the pirate. A first trophy or a gift from a beloved." 

She just eyed him, not willing to call the crown prince a fool, but she was thinking it. It was not those things. It might be something sentimental, but there was a reason the chest was lead, there was a reason the stone felt odd, and there was most definitely a reason why it had been locked away more tightly than the actual gold.

After a moment of silence, Thor's jaw worked and he said, "You really think it's magic?"

"I think it's _something_ ," she said. "Something important and strange. Maybe I can figure out what it is. Where it comes from. Or ... I don't know. It must be a clue about this Black Order and its master." Her gaze traveled out across the roses, thinking of days years past when she and Loki had been young enough nobody had demanded a chaperone and they had run around on the paths together. 

"What kind of monsters are they?" she whispered. "To kill themselves and others so freely? We have to find them. Not just for revenge but they are a true menace on the sea. And I fear, what if they turn their attention to land? That report out of Kingston is horrifying, if it's true."

"It's true," he added unexpectedly. "Father got confirmation from the admiralty two days ago, from Admiral Freyr. The same - the attack was brutal and fast. Survivors lined up, divided, and executed."

Her hand flew up to the base of her throat, all too easily seeing it in her imagination. "All of them?"

He nodded, grimly. "Men, women, children, made no difference. So far nowhere else we know of, but Father says it's only a matter of time before they strike elsewhere. The _Excelsior_ was not their only ship." Which they knew because Loki had been taken before the _Excelsior_ had been struck.

"The _Jormungandr_ is out there," she murmured. "Somewhere, under a new flag, in a new port, with a new master."

He nodded agreement. "Yes. As Kingston makes it clear, ships are not the only ones at risk here. Father has summoned the Vanaheim and Alfheim ambassadors to court tomorrow. You should come and speak to them as well." 

"I shall." 

"But perhaps you should not speak of the magic rock," he said and she smiled wry agreement. No, best not have the foreign ambassadors think the lady captain was utterly mad. "And I have an idea for the crystal. I don't know if it will help, at all, but I know someone. He was the one who made the fireworks for," he hesitated and finished with a twitch of regret, "the engagement party."

She remembered the display over the river had been stunning, and Loki had held her hand as they'd watched. She had to blink back a sudden heat in her eyes. "Yes, I recall. They were lovely, but what does a powder monkey know about magic rocks?"

"He was not... a powder monkey," Thor corrected. "The fireworks were part of that trade yes, but he himself said he was a doctor and ... well, a sorcerer. Of course, I took him to be jesting, but now I wonder. There was a stone in the brooch of his cloak that reminds me of that, somewhat." He nodded down at the lead chest on the seat. "It gave me a similar feeling that it was slightly... alive. Somehow. Odd. I was thinking I could summon him here." 

"He lives in the city?" Sif asked and Thor nodded. "I should call on him. He might be more inclined to be truthful in his own home."

Or perhaps not. But she felt a royal audience would be too formal and not revealing. 

"All right," he accepted her reason without argument, thankfully. "I have his card in my writing desk. Let's return inside, and have some refreshments." 


	3. Chapter 3

Later, she took the card in her fingers and examined it curiously. "Doctor Stephen Strange" it read, with his address in the seventh district, near the cathedral.

She took her leave and showed the carriage driver the card, he brought her to the house. It was a fine brownstone with a heavy entrance gate and pedestrian door, to which she had her driver present her card and ask if the doctor would receive her.

The pedestrian gate opened and the doctor's footman appeared. "He will receive you, Captain. This way."

She followed him inside a wide entrance hall of all paneled wood and stairs that rose to a mid-landing at which was a large round window. The footman brought her into a sitting room near the door. "He will be with you shortly. Would you care for refreshments?"

She refused and the footman withdrew, taking her hat, though she kept her uniform coat on and the satchel over her shoulder with the casket inside it. She scanned the room, noting nothing out of the ordinary, and wondering if she'd come on a fool's quest. What was she going to ask? 'I see you're a man of science, would you like to examine this rock I think is magical?'

The door opened before she could decide whether she should just leave. A tall man, dark-haired in a dark coat entered and for just a second her heart fluttered with recognition. But dark-haired tall men were not uncommon, and when she looked at his face, of course, he was not Loki at all. He had facial hair trimmed into a neat goatee, and eyes so light blue they seemed silverine. "Captain? I am Stephen Strange."

"Doctor," she offered her hand to shake, but he raised it politely to his lips.

"My lady Sif. Welcome."

"Please, merely Sif." The niceties were broken by an older woman pushing the tea cart into the room.

"Tea?" Strange asked, once the cart was put in position and the servant bobbed a curtsy and left.

When Sif didn't answer immediately he turned, frowning slightly in puzzlement and she had to explain. "I... I am thinking I have disturbed you for no reason," she admitted. "My coming here was impetuous and probably foolish."

"I doubt that," he answered. His eyes fell on her satchel. "Would you like me to take that for you?"

She clutched it closer. "I -- no, I was going to show it to you."

He looked intrigued for a moment, raising his brows and rubbing his beard once. "Please, be seated. One lump, or two?"

"One, thank you." He made her tea while she sat on the small green velvet sofa and brought the satchel to rest on her lap. When he handed her the cup and saucer, she was glad for something to do with her hands, even if she still had no idea what she would say that didn't sound insane.

He seated himself in the wing chair and regarded her. "So, please. Tell me how I may be of help. It has something to do with what you carry? And that is because of the _Excelsior_?"

She jerked, surprised. "You know of that?"

"It was in the paper this morning," he explained. "Not many details, but that you battled the pirates and brought it home. And my friend - you know Admiral Ross? We attended university together, before I went east to study- and he sent me a message with some more details."

"Ah, I see. Good. You went east to study? Medicine?"

He cocked his head a bit to regard her. "What is it you truly want to ask?"

"Prince Thor told me you have a large stone or a crystal - in a cloak clasp or pendant, that..." she hesitated and then finished, "may be more than it seems. Is that true?"

His gaze flicked to the hidden object on her lap, no doubt able to trace that it was some sort of box just by how the fabric fell around it. "I see. One moment." He rose and left the room, and returned quickly. He now wore a heavy gold chain with a large pendant, with a green stone inset in the gold.

"His Highness saw this." He touched the green stone that was neither emerald nor jade, so far as Sif could tell. "It is an amulet called the Eye of Agamotto."

"Is it--" she licked her lips and decided to just say it, "magic?"

Instead of denying or mocking such a foolish question in an age of reason, he answered simply, "It is. It allows me glimpses of times that may happen or the past. When I went east to study, I was not learning medicine." She had not expected him to answer. Gaping in surprise at the admission it took her mind a moment to whirl through the repeated amazement 'magic is real, magic is real, I am not mad, I was right.'

His mouth twitched in amusement as he watched her face. "Now that you have learned my greatest secret, please, Lady Sif, how may I help you?"

"There are hiding spots built into the cabinetry of ships of the line. I found this in one of them on the _Excelsior_. It is like no treasure I have ever seen before." She pulled out the chest and set it down on the small low table between them, tilting back the lid so he could see the stone.

The reaction was immediate. He reached out, quick as a viper, and snapped the lid shut again. And even in that brief time, the green gem on his chest sparked with an emerald fire.

"You know what it is." She did not say it as a question, because that much was obvious.

He nodded. "I have seen it before. Well, not that one, probably, but one like it." His expression took on a faraway cast, and he sipped his tea and murmured, "At least we know where they went now." He set the cup on its saucer and focused on her again. "They are called Heavenly Cubes. Made in ancient days by unknown people, the Emperor of China collected them and sent them to be protected by a group of sorcerers high in the mountains. A place called Kamar-Taj." He tapped the stone at his chest. "This is also from Kamar-Taj, but it is not one of the Heavenly Cubes. That is where I learned more deeper power than medicine."

She was curious about his reasons, but decided that could wait. "And these Heavenly Cubes do what?"

"Many things. A source of mystical power, but primarily communication," he answered. "If one touches a stone, one may look within it to see out of another, and if you were also touching it, we could speak." She eyed the chest in astonishment. Such a device would be extraordinary, and very useful to coordinate attacks by a fleet and as warnings.

The doctor added, "I would surmise that is how the pirates are using them."

"If they were in China, how did they fall into western pirate hands?"

"One of our own order burned Kamar-Taj. I was there," he said softly. "It was horrific. So many died. Our leader, too, was killed. The order was scattered and destroyed and I made my way back. I saved this," he touched the amulet, "but the Cubes were nowhere to be found. Presumably our betrayer took them."

"And the name of your traitor?" she asked, hoping this was at last the elusive enemy leader.

"Kaecilius. But I think he had fallen with another, as he announced he rejected the path of light at the temple, to follow the darkness."

Her lips parted in recognition. "That is what the pirate captain said. He said he was a part of something called the Black Order and that he had become the darkness. He said his name 'Obsidian' had been given to him as part of the Black Order by their leader."

Strange nodded in grim understanding. "So they've spread."

Her eye fell on the casket as she tried to put words to her new idea. "So... if we have one of their communication devices, can we use it to find the others? Their leader must have one."

His brows shot up and then he nodded slowly. "Perhaps."

"But how? If they're dangerous?" She remembered how he'd snapped the box shut.

"Dangerous to the unprepared. But for us, now that we know what it is, I can protect myself."

"I ... feel I should thank you. You're risking your life for--"

He lifted long fingers to halt the awkward words. "Asgard is my country, too, Lady Sif. I met and was briefly friendly with your fiance before those murderers stole him. I merely did not connect them to the same monster that destroyed my other home until now. So I will do what I can to stop them."

She nodded, heart aching at the reminder. "Still, thank you, Doctor."

His expression softened with a kindness, and he pulled the chest nearer to him on the table. "Let us see what I can try first. The Eye should protect me."

He closed his eyes and opened the chest. Again the amulet sparked with a light of its own, and brightened as the doctor held a hand out above the stone. It hovered there for a long breathless moment and he lowered it slowly inside. She leaned closer to watch as he touched the stone lightly. Unlike with Thor, it did not seem to burn or hurt him, but his body stiffened and his eyelids twitched.

"Now let us see where the others are," he murmured.

Strangely Sif could feel it, too. That awareness she sensed when she was near the stone seemed to grow, and she stared at the stone as a light deep inside seemed to flicker and then shine brighter and brighter, like a star inside.

It was almost like falling, but slowly, floating toward that light while her surroundings faded away into a grey nothingness. It wasn't alarming, as the fog seemed to enclose her. She followed the bright star, drawing no nearer at first, until it happened all at once.

The light expanded and grew to something like a bright window and she looked out of it. What she saw was indistinct, still through thin fog- wood, perhaps? Was this another ship's cabin? - and there was a darkness. That became a shadow, that resolved into a figure wearing black. There was something lighter, and she saw ungloved fingers, gripping a long white quill. The quill halted its motion, and feeling some sense that she had been noticed and she needed to hurry, she lifted her gaze to find the person's face.

Her back slammed up against the sofa and her eyes opened on the confines of the doctor's sitting room.

But that face. That face she knew. She had watched that face mature from childish roundness to fine perfection. Pale skin, black hair loose and framing his face, proud nose, high forehead, light eyes that stared straight at her....

"Loki," she whispered. For it had been him. She had no doubt.

He was alive.

She couldn't catch her breath, hand on her chest. They'd been wrong. He hadn't been killed. He hadn't been lost at sea.

He had been captured.

A soft sound of distress drew her attention back to the doctor, whose eyes were still closed but his jaw was clenched and his fingers on the cube were white with the pressure. "No," he whispered through his teeth. "No, I will not let you-- Stop!"

He let go of the cube, throwing both hands before him and circles of fire formed at his fingertips. The box snapped shut of its own accord.

Only then he dropped his hands, panting and blinking as if roused from nightmare.

After a moment of silence his eyes met hers. "You saw him, too."

"I saw him," She confirmed, voice hoarse. "He's alive. He's been alive all this time."

He nodded slowly. "And worse, he is one of them, now. He attacked me through the stone. That should have been impossible for the prince, who had no magical education. I felt no recognition, only ... darkness."

She shook her head in denial. "No, he's alive. Where there is life, there is hope. I will not give up."

He shook his head once. "I don't mean that. Of course, we must try to rescue him. But I think you should understand- whatever was done to that captain you met, was done to him too."

She thought back to his image in the dream-space in the cube. She'd been so taken by recognition she hadn't marked what had changed, but he had changed. His face had seemed gaunt, eyes more deep set and bones too sharp, with lines graven at the corners of his mouth and eyes despite his youth. Indications of suffering.

"I know," she whispered and swallowed hard, but forced herself to remember. She couldn't shy away from the truth, but needed to face it head on. Whatever they had done to him, she could undo. Whatever suffering they had inflicted, she would soothe.

Her shoulders squared and she lifted her chin. "We need to speak to Thor, and lay plans. If you would join me in this endeavor?"

"I will, my lady," he agreed with a somber nod.

In the hall, it no longer surprised her when he beckoned to no one to join him, and a red cape floated to wrap around his shoulders. And he followed her to her carriage to return to the palace.

She had thought herself bereft, her heart lost, but now she knew there had been a reason she had never felt Loki die. Because her love still lived. She would find him and rescue him.

She would bring her lost prince home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The sequel will post in January! Because I got very carried away and I couldn't leave them parted. I'm not that mean, I promise.


End file.
